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Afghan council calls on NATO to support peace talks with Taliban

The chairman of a new peace council called on NATO Thursday to support government-led peace talks with Taliban militants to end the war in Afghanistan.

"Our request from NATO is to support the High Peace Council in efforts that can help bring peace and success in the talks with Taliban," Burhanuddin Rabbani said, DPA reported.

Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, a top adviser to President Hamid Karzai and head of the joint secretariat for the council, said that the NATO forces should cease military operations in areas where the militants are willing to begin talks.

NATO's military support was "crucially important" for the peace talks, Stanekzai said, adding that the alliance had already established a task-force at its Kabul headquarters to support the talks.

"I think all those efforts show their seriousness to support the Afghan-led reconciliation and reintegration efforts," he said.

Rabbani, a former president, confirmed that he personally had held talks "with some individuals affiliated with the Taliban group" and insisted that the Taliban were ready to negotiate peace with Karzai's government.

"The Taliban have never rejected talks completely. They always had conditions - of course they had very heavy conditions - but this means that they want that there should be talks," he said.

Karzai earlier this week also said "unofficial contacts" had taken place.

The Taliban have publicly rejected any sort of contact with the Afghan government.

In a statement sent to media on Wednesday, the militant group said that it "will not accept any kind of negotiation or ceasefire with the invading enemy until and unless the invaders have pulled out of Afghanistan."

"Holding negotiations with the enemy in conditions of their military presence in Afghanistan is a waste of time," the statement said.

The statement said "If the talks have really taken place, then you should produce evidence to prove the participation of the delegates of the Islamic Emirate in the negotiations."

Asked if the government could prove the Taliban's good intentions, Stanekzai told the German Press Agency dpa that the government was not willing to reveal names of the Taliban interested in reconciliation before the talks yielded any results, because it would "endanger lives."

A NATO official in Brussels also reportedly said Wednesday that the alliance had sometimes allowed Taliban fighters to travel to Kabul to hold talks with members of Karzai's government.